cypress-real-events
Advanced tools
The cypress-real-events package provides a set of commands to simulate real user interactions in Cypress tests. This includes actions like clicking, typing, and hovering, which are more realistic compared to the default Cypress commands.
Real Click
Simulates a real user click on a button element. This is more accurate than the default Cypress click command as it mimics the actual user interaction.
cy.get('button').realClick();Real Type
Simulates real typing into an input field. This is useful for testing scenarios where the timing and sequence of keystrokes matter.
cy.get('input').realType('Hello World');Real Hover
Simulates a real user hovering over an element. This can be used to test hover states and tooltips.
cy.get('button').realHover();Real Press
Simulates pressing a key on the keyboard. This is useful for testing keyboard shortcuts and form submissions.
cy.get('input').realPress('Enter');The cypress-plugin-tab package allows you to simulate tab key presses in Cypress tests. While it focuses on keyboard navigation, it does not provide the full range of real user interactions that cypress-real-events offers.
The cypress-commands package extends Cypress with additional commands, including some for user interactions. However, it does not focus specifically on simulating real user events as cypress-real-events does.
The cypress-testing-library package provides a set of utilities for testing DOM nodes. It focuses on improving the readability and maintainability of tests rather than simulating real user interactions.
Cypress default events are simulated. That means that all events like cy.click or cy.type are fired from javascript. That's why these events will be untrusted (event.isTrusted will be false) and they can behave a little different from real native events. But for some cases, it can be impossible to use simulated events, for example, to fill a native alert or copy to the clipboard. This plugin solves this problem.
Thanks to Chrome Devtools Protocol. Cypress is connecting to CDP for tasks like screenshots, setting viewport, and others. This project utilizes the same connection to fire system events. The event firing system works literally like in puppeteer. And as a result, unlocks such features like hovering and native focus management via Tab.
Cypress only. Really. Cypress itself can fire native events. The only limitation for real events – they work only in the chromium-based browser. That means that Firefox is not supported, at least for now.
Here is a simple test that can be written with native events:
it("tests real events", () => {
cy.get("input").realClick(); // perform a native real click on the field
cy.realType("cypress real event"); // fires native system keypress events and fills the field
cy.realPress("Tab"); // native tab click switches the focus
cy.get("input").realMouseDown(); // perform a native mouse press on the field
cy.get("input").realMouseUp(); // perform a native mouse release on the field
cy.focused().realHover(); // hovers over the new focused element
cy.contains("some text in the hovered popover");
});
Install npm package:
npm install cypress-real-events
yarn add cypress-real-events
Register new commands by adding this to your cypress/support/index.{js,ts} file.
import "cypress-real-events";
To include TypeScript declarations, add "cypress-real-events" to the types section of your tsconfig.json file:
{
"compilerOptions": {
"types": ["cypress", "node", "cypress-real-events"]
}
}
The idea of the commands – they should be as similar as possible to cypress default commands (like cy.type), but starts with real – cy.realType.
Here is an overview of the available real event commands:
Fires native system click event.
cy.get("button").realClick();
cy.get("button").realClick(options);
Example:
cy.get("button").realClick({ position: "topLeft" }); // click on the top left corner of button
cy.get("body").realClick({ x: 100, y: 1240 }); // click by the x & y coordinates relative to the whole window
Options:
Optional button: "none" | "left" | "right" | "middle" | "back" | "forward"Optional pointer: "mouse" | "pen"Optional x: undefined | number (more about coordinates)Optional y: undefined | number (more about coordinates)Optional position: "topLeft" | "top" | "topRight" | "left" | "center" | "right" | "bottomLeft" | "bottom" | "bottomRight"Optional scrollBehavior: "center" | "top" | "bottom" | "nearest" | falseOptional clickCount: numberMake sure that
xandyhave a bigger priority thanposition.
Fires a real native hover event. Yes, it can test :hover preprocessor.
cy.get("button").realHover();
cy.get("button").realHover(options);
Example:
cy.get("button").realHover({ position: "bottomLeft" }); // hovers over the bottom left corner of button
Options:
Optional pointer: "mouse" | "pen"Optional position: "topLeft" | "top" | "topRight" | "left" | "center" | "right" | "bottomLeft" | "bottom" | "bottomRight"Optional scrollBehavior: "center" | "top" | "bottom" | "nearest" | falseFires native press event. It can fire one key event or the "shortcut" like Shift+Control+M. Make sure that event is global, it means that it is required to firstly focus any control before firing this event.
cy.realPress("Tab"); // switch the focus for a11y testing
cy.realPress(["Alt", "Meta", "P"]); // Alt+(Command or Control)+P
cy.realPress(key);
cy.realPress(key, options);
| Name | Type | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
key | string | string[] | - | key or keys to press. Should be the same as cypress's type command argument. All the keys available here |
options | Options | {} |
Options:
Optional pointer: "mouse" | "pen"Fires native system touch event.
cy.get("button").realTouch();
cy.get("button").realTouch(options);
cy.get("button").realTouch({ position: "topLeft" }); // touches the top left corner of button
cy.get("body").realTouch({ x: 100, y: 1240 }); // touches the x & y coordinates relative to the whole window
Options:
Optional x: undefined | number (more about coordinates)Optional y: undefined | number (more about coordinates)Optional position: "topLeft" | "top" | "topRight" | "left" | "center" | "right" | "bottomLeft" | "bottom" | "bottomRight"Optional radius: undefined | number default 1Optional radiusX: undefined | number default 1Optional radiusY: undefined | number default 1Runs a sequence of native press events (via cy.realPress). This can be used to simulate real typing.
Make sure that type of event is global. This means that it is not attached to any field.
cy.realType("type any text"); // type any text on the page
cy.get("input").focus();
cy.realType("some text {enter}"); // type into focused field
cy.realType(text);
cy.realType(text, options);
| Name | Type | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
text | string | - | text to type. Should be around the same as cypress's type command argument (https://docs.cypress.io/api/commands/type.html#Arguments. All the keys available here |
options | Options | {} |
Options:
Optional delay: undefined | number default 30Optional log: undefined | false | true default trueOptional pressDelay: undefined | number default 10Runs native swipe events. It means that touch events will be fired. Actually a sequence of touchStart -> touchMove -> touchEnd. It can perfectly swipe drawers and other tools like this one.
Make sure to enable mobile viewport :)
cy.get(".element").realSwipe("toLeft"); // swipes from right to left
cy.get(".element").realSwipe("toRight"); // inverted
cy.realSwipe(direction);
cy.realSwipe(direction, options);
| Name | Type | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
direction | "toLeft" | "toTop" | "toRight" | "toBottom"; | - | Direction of swipe |
options | Options | {} |
Options:
Optional length: undefined | number default 10Optional step: undefined | number default 10Optional x: undefined | number (more about coordinates)Optional y: undefined | number (more about coordinates)Optional touchPosition: "topLeft" | "top" | "topRight" | "left" | "center" | "right" | "bottomLeft" | "bottom" | "bottomRight"Optional touchMoveDelay: undefined | number default 0Fires native system mouse down event.
cy.get("button").realMouseDown();
cy.get("button").realMouseDown(options);
Example:
cy.get("button").realMouseDown({ position: "topLeft" }); // click on the top left corner of button
Options:
Optional pointer: "mouse" | "pen"Optional position: "topLeft" | "top" | "topRight" | "left" | "center" | "right" | "bottomLeft" | "bottom" | "bottomRight"Optional scrollBehavior: "center" | "top" | "bottom" | "nearest" | falseOptional button: "left" | "middle" | "right" | "back" | "forward" | "none"Fires native system mouse up event.
cy.get("button").realMouseUp();
cy.get("button").realMouseUp(options);
Example:
cy.get("button").realMouseUp({ position: "topLeft" }); // click on the top left corner of button
Options:
Optional pointer: "mouse" | "pen"Optional position: "topLeft" | "top" | "topRight" | "left" | "center" | "right" | "bottomLeft" | "bottom" | "bottomRight"Optional scrollBehavior: "center" | "top" | "bottom" | "nearest" | falseOptional button: "left" | "middle" | "right" | "back" | "forward" | "none"Fires native system mouseMoved event. Moves mouse inside a subject to the provided amount of coordinates from top left corner (adjustable with position option.)
cy.get("sector").realMouseMove(x, y);
cy.get("sector").realMouseMove(x, y, options);
Example:
cy.get("sector").realMouseMove(50, 50, { position: "center" }); // moves by 50px x and y from center of sector
Options:
Optional position: "topLeft" | "top" | "topRight" | "left" | "center" | "right" | "bottomLeft" | "bottom" | "bottomRight"Optional scrollBehavior: "center" | "top" | "bottom" | "nearest" | falseFires native system mouse wheel event, scrolls the page.
cy.get("div").realMouseWheel(options);
Example:
cy.get("div").realMouseWheel({ deltaY: 100 }) // Scroll down, mouse will be positioned at centered by default.
cy.get("div").realMouseWheel({ deltaY: -100 }) // Scroll up, mouse will be positioned at centered by default.
cy.get("div").realMouseWheel({ deltaX: 500 }) // Scroll right, mouse will be positioned at centered by default.
cy.get("div").realMouseWheel({ deltaX: -500 }) // Scroll left, mouse will be positioned at centered by default.
cy.get("div").realMouseWheel({ deltaY: 100, deltaX: 100 }) // Scroll right and down, mouse will be positioned at centered by default.
Options:
Optional scrollBehavior: "center" | "top" | "bottom" | "nearest" | falseOptional deltaX: X delta in CSS pixels for mouse wheel event (default: 0). Positive values emulate a scroll right and negative values emulate scroll left event.Optional deltaY: Y delta in CSS pixels for mouse wheel event (default: 0). Positive values emulate a scroll down and negative values emulate a scroll up event.Several commands from this plugin accept { x: number, y: number } coordinates. There is an important note that these coordinates are relative to the whole tab to pass it right to the CDP. For regular elements, we calculate them automatically, but if you need to pass absolute coordinates you will need to provide them yourself.
The easiest way to debug coordinates is to run any real events command and check the logged coordinates by clicking on the command.
cy.realHover hovering state does not show in the visual regression services?Unfortunately, neither visual regression services like Happo and Percy nor plain cy.screenshot do not allow to test the hovering state. The hovering state is very different from any kind of js and css so it is not possible to capture it using dom snapshotting (like visual regression services do) and the screenshooting as well because cypress core itself is preventing hovering state in the screenshots.
cy.realHover hovering state is not resetting after my checksLet's take an example. If the real user needs to open menu popover then do check content of popover content and close it the algorithm will be:
To automate this with cypress, you can do the following
cy.get("[aria-label='Test Button']")
.should("have.css", "background-color", "rgb(217, 83, 79)") // check the state before hover
.realHover()
.should("have.css", "background-color", "rgb(201, 48, 44"); // test hovering state
// reset hovering by putting mouse away (e.g. here top left corner of body)
cy.get("body").realHover({ position: "topLeft" });
// hover state reset 🎉
cy.get("[aria-label='Test Button']").should(
"have.css",
"background-color",
"rgb(217, 83, 79)"
);
Sometimes when there are unsaved changes in a webform, and you leave the page, the web application asks you due the onbeforeunload event if you really want to leaf the page and loose the changes.
You can try it on this Demo Page.
In "normal" Cypress tests, these popup windows do not appear. This is because no "real" user actions are performed on the application. See this page for more information about the beforeunload event. But when they appear, they block the whole test execution, and you have to handle them explicitly. Gleb Bahmutov writes about this behaviour and possible solutions in this Blog Post.
Now when you use this real-events plugin and perform a realEvent on your application, the browser thinks there happened a real user interaction.
From now on your test is in an active interaction state, which allows the application to use all the features listed here.
One problem of the real native system events I need to mention – you will not get an error message if the event wasn't produced. Similar to selenium or playwright – if a javascript event was not fired you will not get a comprehensive error message.
So probably this package should not be used as a replacement for the cypress events, at least for the writing tests experience 🐨
The project is licensed under the terms of MIT license
FAQs
Real native events for cypress. Dispatched via CDP.
The npm package cypress-real-events receives a total of 758,266 weekly downloads. As such, cypress-real-events popularity was classified as popular.
We found that cypress-real-events demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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